How to Milk an Almond Stuff an Egg And Armor a Turnip A ...

Another Recipe for Dressed Eggplant by
Him (ibn al-Mahdi) Too
al-Warraq p. 227
113
Boil eggplant and chop it into fine pieces.
Take a platter, and pour on it a little vinegar,
white sugar, ground almonds, saffron, caraway
seeds, cassia, [and mix]. Spread the [chopped]
eggplant and fried onion all over the sauce.
Drizzle some olive oil on the dish and serve it, God
willing.
1 ¾ lb eggplant ½ c ground almonds
½ lb onion 8 threads saffron
2 T olive oil 2 t caraway seeds
¼ c vinegar 2 t cinnamon
2 T sugar 3 T olive oil
Boil eggplants for about half an hour,
remove, skin, chop. Chop onion, fry in 2 T
olive oil until limp and beginning to brown,
about 10 minutes. Combine all other
ingredients except oil, stir together to a paste,
spread thinly on the plate, dump on chopped
eggplant and chopped onion, drizzle over 3 T
olive oil.
A Recipe for Soused Eggplants
al-Warraq p. 228
At the end of their season [i.e. late summer],
cut the calyxes of the eggplants and cook them in
vinegar until done. Take them out, drain them
well, and set them aside.
Finely chop some round onion, along with
cilantro, rue, and parsley. Fry them in olive oil
until browned. Pour vinegar on them and add
some spices (abzar).
Arrange the eggplants in wide mouthed jars
and pour on them the vinegar which has been
seasoned with the herbs and spices. Let it cover
the eggplants.
Store away the jars. The eggplant will stay
good for a whole year. Whenever you wish to eat
it, take some out and put them in a bowl, garnish
them with chopped rue, and serve them, God
willing.
2 lb eggplant 1 T olive oil
4 c vinegar ¾ c more vinegar
3 oz onion Abzar:
¼ c more vinegar 1 t pepper
1 T cilantro 1 t coriander
1 t rue 1 T caraway seeds
1 T parsley 1 t cinnamon
Simmer eggplants in 4 c of vinegar for
about half an hour, drain. Fry the onion etc. in
olive oil about ten minutes. Add ¼ c vinegar
plus spices. Put eggplants in a jar, pour onion
etc. over them, add ¾ c vinegar to cover.
Keeps for months. Very vinegary. I like it
on bread.
Deserts
A recipe for Judhaba of Bananas by Ibn al
Mahdi
al-Warraq p. 375
Peel the bananas and set them aside. Spread a
ruqaqa [thin round of bread] in the pan and
spread a layer of bananas over it. Sprinkle the
banana layer with pure sugar, and spread
another ruqaqa all over it. Repeat the layering of
banana, sugar, and ruqaqa until the pan is full.
Pour enough rose water to drench the layered
ingredients, [put the pan in a hot tannur,]
suspend a fine chicken over it, [and let it roast]
God willing.
10 oz Iranian lavash 1-4 T rose water
3 ¼ lb bananas 4-5 lb chicken
½ c sugar
Oil the bottom of your pot. Line the pot
with lavash—an Iranian thin bread that is the
closest equivalent to ruqaqa we know of.
Cover that with sliced (or mashed) bananas.
Sprinkle over them 2 T of sugar. Cover with
another layer of lavash. Repeat until you run
out of banana, then put on a final covering of
lavash. Sprinkle the rose water over that—4 T
will leave a very strong taste of rose water,
which some may not like.
Arrange your chicken so it is suspended
above the layers. I did it by running a
hardwood skewer lengthwise through the
chicken and laying it across the top edge of
my pot.
Bake the chicken until done—roughly 20
minutes a pound at 350°, to an internal
temperature of about 190°—letting the
drippings fall on and soak into the layered
bread and bananas.